IN today’s fourth instalment of Talking Boro, the Gazette’s panel of experts debate where Boro will finish this season and who will grab the crucial goals the team desperately needs. Read on to find out what the panel have to say on these pressing topics.

Philip: Where will Boro finish this season?

BERNIE: I’m on record as saying 14th and at the minute I don’t see anything to change my mind. There’s a lot of average teams in the Premier League, we should be aiming higher than that.

I think the lads believe they’re going to finish higher than 14th, but at the minute there’s nothing to suggest that we can do that. I just feel that if we keep continuing missing chances, keep missing goals, then we will definitely finish round about there.

VIC: I think they’ll finish somewhere within the division that they’re in in the Premiership which is the third division, which runs from approximately 10th to 16th.

JOHN: Obviously bottom half of the division but above the relegation zone, I think we’ll be doing well to do that.

JEFF: I feel exactly the same, I think 10th to 16th. This season we were looking to get into the second division I think without any shadow of a doubt - the second division of the Premiership - but I think the way things are at the moment, we’d settle for being firmly in the third division.

I don’t think we’ll go down, but the longer it goes on - confidence, injuries, suspensions - then we might have a long, hard season, but even at the end of that we won’t go down.

ERIC: I think the injuries have already ruined the season. We’re a million miles away from the top half, and we’re not going to get there, I don’t think. It would take a massive up-turn in performances, results and everything. You can’t write the season off because there’s a lot to be achieved and that means making sure that we not only stay here but lay stronger foundations for next year.

Definitely a lot of things to do but we’re nowhere near the top half, any position above the bottom three for me is success.

Philip: What should the approach be against Chelsea on Saturday?

BERNIE: We’ve got a good record against Chelsea, especially at the Riverside. We’ve been written off over the years and we’ve stunned a lot of people. We had a bit of a hoodoo sign over Mourinho when he was manager but, unfortunately, he’s gone.

They’ve got this new guy (Avram Grant), I don’t know much about the new guy, I can’t even pronounce his name. Chelsea got a bit of stick over their performance in Europe but they got a good result against Bolton and we have to go for it.

I don’t see the goals flying in all over the place but we have to have a go at Chelsea.

We can’t just bolster the midfield, spread five across the middle of the park, get a point and be happy. We have to go and try to beat Chelsea. We’ve done it in the past and there’s no reason why we can’t do it again.

JEFF: I’m just a bit confused how Bernie struggles to pronounce the name Grant, but never mind!

Yes, I think we’ve got to be positive, we’ve got to believe, it’s no point now knee-jerking and going back to playing 4-5-1 at home because the fans are going to be even more annoyed, even though at the moment we’d take a point any which way we can.

But Chelsea are beatable, we’ve done it the last two seasons. They’re still an excellent team, new manager or not. I think depending on who we’ve got.

Obviously if Mido’s back, if Aliadiere’s back, if Sanli’s back to full fitness, then we can go back to the type of team and the type of approach we had against Birmingham City.

And to me there’s three points for the taking there and that would do a hell of a lot for confidence, getting something against Chelsea, because new manager or no new manager they’re still a top quality side. But we’ve got to go for it.

JOHN: Boro have to go for it. It’s going to be a good crowd in the Riverside.

We need to go out there, show them no respect, get amongst them and just get the crowd lifted which will lift the players and hopefully we can get something out of it. It’s no good just sitting back and letting the reputations do the talking, let’s get out there and mean business.

VIC: As Jeff said, I think it depends entirely on what players are available. In the ideal world if he’s got the shape there that he wants to play then he should stick with it, because that’s how the entire season’s been geared. I’m not totally sure they have the players to do it any other way, to be honest.

ERIC: It’s not about formations, it’s really not about the team that’s selected, even though we do assume that the strikers will be back and we hope, for example, that Mido and Tuncay will be playing together up front.

But it’s got nothing to do with that, it’s all down to attitude. I’ve been a little bit disappointed with the attitude in periods in the last two away games.

That has to change, they have to be thoroughly committed, roll up their sleeves and battle for 90 minutes, and that’s the greatest quality they can take into the Chelsea game to give them a chance of winning.

BERNIE: I think the chances will come. Every game they always get one or two chances. They’ll be limited against Chelsea but they will get a chance or two and they have to take them.

Philip: Who will score the goals Boro need?

JOHN: That’s difficult, as Bernie said we’ve not got a proven goalscorer out there. The only person I can look to is Mido if he finds his goalscoring touch, brilliant. He’s also good in the air, which gives us options.

But, obviously, the other one that’s just started to tick over now is Tuncay. At the end of the day he’s a good lad, he can hit things, he’ll take a chance, he’s not a guy that wants to just walk into the box. If there’s a chance, he’ll have a go at it.

JEFF: I’ll go along with Eric and what he said in the Gazette last week. We need the goals. If we’re playing this free flowing, open, attacking football then perhaps we don’t need to depend on one guy getting 20 or two guys getting 30 between them. Downing’s scored three goals this season.

We’ve got players across the squad. Downing can score goals, hopefully O’Neil can get a few.

I think there’s goals within the team, albeit agreeing with everybody else, I think, we just haven’t got a 24-a-season man. But if you look at the Premiership over the last couple of seasons, Drogba perhaps was an exception last year, gone are the days that every team had somebody who scored 20 goals.

The leading goalscorers in the Premier League last season at most clubs were somewhere in the region of about 12 to 14. That isn’t beyond the realms of possibility that a couple of our strikers could get up to 10 or 12. But if that’s the case then we’ve got to see goals spread throughout the team, and if we’re just knocking it up to two guys up front and that’s the end of it, well, you’re reliant on them.

But if we’re playing the type of football that I believe they want to, then we should be seeing a spread of goals from right the way throughout the team.

BERNIE: I think we need to be shown the way to put the balls in the net and for me as an ex-striker, I look at Mido and Tuncay Sanli. We need those two guys, we must give them a run in the team and allow them to form a partnership.

When Sanli joined us I watched the pre-season games and I was amazed and stunned that Sanli, who was the only one with a real goal-scoring track record, was playing outside right.

I said that Sanli would not last there, he would be moved up front sooner rather than later and I think it took three games.

He got moved to the middle, then he was injured, then he was on the bench, but for me as a Boro fan, as an ex-striker, Sanli and Mido could show the whole team the way to go.

Because if they get goals, that will give confidence to the other guys throughout the team.

If they’re struggling and they’re not getting a run as a partnership, and they keep chopping and changing, putting Aliadiere in there, and Dong-Gook Lee in, it won’t work.

We need somebody to show the way. If those two guys start scoring the goals and form a partnership, I think that will break through to the rest of the team and everybody will gain confidence.

VIC: Well, I’d like to see the midfield getting goals because if they don’t then the system isn’t working and we’re in trouble. It’s all geared up to get the ball through to the forwards quickly, a lot of passing and movement, and they expect Rochemback, O’Neil, maybe even Boateng to get forward and pop up with a goal or two - Cattermole and Arca as well.

And if those goals don’t come, then we have a serious problem.

ERIC: Vic’s perfectly right. When we were down at Tottenham a couple of weeks ago, chatting to the local reporters down there, they were absolutely adamant that Mido won’t get 10 goals this season. I hope he does, and so does everybody else.

But it’s an indication of their belief that he isn’t a prolific goalscorer.

So Vic’s perfectly right, the new system that has been introduced has to work, Boro have to get goals from all over the pitch. If they don’t there are major problems.